Nuclear power at the end of World War II promised to be the solution to our growing energy needs. A relatively small power plant could produce almost seemingly endless amounts of energy through the fission of radioactive material. It seemed too good to be true. And it was.

Within the decades of the growth of the nuclear industry, we learned that nuclear power was filled with problems relating to safety and long-term sustainability. It's possible to make nuclear energy plentyful and cheaply, the only problem is it is incredibly dangerous and produces dangerous waste that we can dispose.

More recently we've learned that nuclear energy doesn't really cut our fossil fuel usage. It takes a significant amount of energy to turn uranium into fuel for reactors. It also takes significant amount of fuel to transport that radioactive material to the reactors, not to mention the energy consumed in construction of these massive plants. While nuclear plants don't have giant stacks releasing carbon dioxide and other far more noxious gases into the atmosphere, they still pollute through their whole lifespans. Their cancerous forms of energy are hidden behind their thick walls and in the remote areas where uranium is mined and refined into a usable substance.

We have been very lucky in our country never to have one of many nuclear reactors malfunction to the point where it injured thousands or millions of people. Yet, it could happen and will happen over a long enough time period. People make mistakes and equipment fails. Many of our reactors are old, and their equipment is wearing out. To say nothing of terrorism. Should the reactor at Indian Point in Buchanan fail and release even a portion of it's toxic fuel into the environment, thousands would die instantly. Millions would die within years of horrific deaths from cancer. Manhattan is less then 30 miles from this plant, and all of New York City lies within 50 miles of the plant. In case of a serious failure, as many as one out of seven Americans would die.

Nuclear power won't solve the global warming problem. That will be dealt with limits on our consumption of energy and rethinking how we use it. Nuclear power poses a greater threat to our environment then global warming ever will—a single failure could kill far more people and ruin more land then decades of climate change. Traditional fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas are problematic, but they are technologies that are safe and whose impacts can be controlled. We should be investing in ways to make fossil fuels cleaner and reduce their impacts, and try to seek conservation and new renewable sources whenever possible.